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HIGHWAY-MAINTENANCE SIMULATION MODEL

The functions related to highway maintenance are often conceptually simple (repair the highway) and administratively complex (alternatives related to priorities, approaches, resources, and many others). Highway maintenance administrators are often faced with questions for which little or no definitive information exists and are asked to make the proper decisions. The highway-maintenance simulation model described in this paper is intended to help alleviate this problem by providing a flexible highway-maintenance decision laboratory in which alternative courses of action may be tested. An earlier version of the model included several simplifying assumptions that made actual considerations regarding highway maintenance operations unrealistic (e.g., one manpower type, one equipment type). The model development is now complete, however, so that typical highway maintenance dilemmas may be considered by using the simulation program. This paper includes an example that depicts model input, and interpretation of the results for one particular situation. Also included is a description of how the model works to simulate a highway maintenance operation.